


Dangerous Kind Of Cool About You

by insertwittyname



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Tattoo Parlor, Canon Trans Character, F/M, First Meetings, Needles, Trans Male Character, blood mention
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-09
Updated: 2018-05-09
Packaged: 2019-05-04 12:18:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14592870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/insertwittyname/pseuds/insertwittyname
Summary: Two years after his surgery, Barry decides to get his first tattoo in celebration of how far he'd come. It's improved by the fact that the artist is hot





	Dangerous Kind Of Cool About You

**Author's Note:**

> This was part two of the two fics that distracted me from the next chapter of my other fic, inspired by the fact that I just really want another tattoo. I hope it makes up for my procrastination. Enjoy!

Barry stared up at the sign of the tattoo parlor from the safe passenger seat of his friend’s car. This was his worst idea yet. The scars weren’t _that_ bad to look at, not anymore, and he never did like pain. He glanced down at the tattoo design in his hands, biting his lip nervously as he considered it. It couldn’t be that bad, could it? Magnus had plenty of tattoos and the artist he’d brought Barry to was really good. But what if—

 

“Dude, you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.” Magnus said, having opened Barry’s door after putting quarters into the meter, “I could always use your appointment to get another for myself.” Magnus smiled warmly at him, but Barry shook his head and got out of the car.

 

“N-no, I can do this. How hard could it be?”

 

Magnus laughed and clapped him on the shoulder, “That’s the spirit!” He led Barry inside the parlor, “It’s not that bad, trust me. And after I get my septum pierced real quick I’ll be back by your side.” Barry smiled softly at him before looking around the parlor. Each wall was covered with framed pictures of tattoo designs and shelves of different plants and crystals. It was deceptively more spacious inside than it appeared to be from the outside and had a lot lighter in there than Barry thought tattoo parlors usually did, with the front windows letting in plenty of natural light along with the overhead lights that brightened the areas clearly designated for the artists. In the back corner was a large woman with an undercut who looked to be tattooing a half-asleep man’s arm to look like a tree. Magnus smiled and waved when the woman looked up, smiling back at him, “Hey, Killian! Looks good!”

 

“Yeah, it’s pretty cool.” Killian said as she wiped some ink and blood off her work, “Lup should be out here in a minute to get you guys set up.”

 

“Awesome.” Magnus plopped down in a red couch near the front and started scrolling through his phone. Barry sat beside him, clutching the design in white-knuckled fists. The loud buzzing of the needle as Killian worked filled the room with noise and Barry with even more anxiety as he stared at one particular pink tourmaline crystal on a shelf next to a framed picture of a man and child.

 

After what felt like an hour but was more like a few minutes, a beautiful woman shorts and a tank top walked out of a back room, leading a man who looked almost exactly like her in a nearly identical outfit back to the same area Barry had been staring at. At second glance, the man she was with was the same man in the picture. Barry watched, captivated, as the two laughed as they spoke quietly with each other. The woman handed a purse to the man with a little, “You know how to take care of that thing, get out of my parlor.”

 

“Oh, fuck off.” The man took the purse and hugged her, careful not to bump his ear against her head, where the tip was red from an industrial bar put through it. As he walked by, Magnus stuck his hand out for a fist bump, which the man returned with a smirk, “’Sup, big guy.”

 

Magnus stood from the couch and approached the woman, who was now working on something at the front desk, “Hey, Lup! Got my buddy here for his first ink.”

 

The woman, Lup, looked up with a sly little smile, “First one, huh?” She looked over at Barry, who tried not to stare at her anxiously, “Yeah, doesn’t look like the tattoo kind.”

 

“Nah, but this one’s special. Get up here and show her, Barry.” Magnus nodded towards her, so Barry sighed a little and got up. He handed the design over to Lup cautiously, hands shaking as he did. She eyed it for a moment before nodding.

 

“Pretty sweet, dude. Where did you want it?” Lup looked up at him expectantly.

 

“Uh, my chest.” Barry replied, not making eye contact, but gesturing to the bottom of his pecs, “In this area.”

 

Lup rummaged through a drawer and took out a tape measure, “Alright, do you mind if I measure so I can scan it real quick?” She made her way around to him and nodded towards his shirt, “Gonna need that off, dude.”

 

Barry looked at her, a little nervous at the thought of being shirtless in public still. _Damn it, Barry, you’ve paid a lot of money to be shirtless. Get your money’s worth,_ he mentally kicked himself as he nodded and pulled his t-shirt off. He looked down at his chest, pleasantly flat in a way that still made him giddy even two years later. Nevertheless, he couldn’t look up at Lup as he pointed to his chest where he wanted the tattoo. She nodded and glanced at his face as she measured across his chest, “And you want it over the scars?”

 

“Y-yeah. That’s, uh…that’s the point of getting it.” Barry said softly.

 

Lup hummed a little in acknowledgement and finished measuring his chest, then moved to sit back down behind the desk to scan the design into the computer, “Alright, it’ll just take a minute. You can put your shirt back on until I’m ready to start.”

 

“Okay.” Barry quickly put his shirt back on and returned to sit with Magnus on the couch again. He took a deep breath as Magnus rubbed his back softly.

 

“Hey, you’re okay, dude.” Magnus leaned over to him and whispered, “It’ll be over before you know it, and you could even have her do the coloring another time.”

 

Barry leaned into Magnus’s touch, “Yeah, it’s just…no one’s really touched my chest since surgery besides myself and doctors, and you know how well I do with pain.”

 

Magnus laughed and shook Barry’s shoulders a little, “At least T made you okay with needles! You got that goin’ for ya!” He put his arm around Barry’s shoulders, cooing to his friend, “And you can squeeze my hand the whole time if you need.”

 

“I might actually take you up on that.” Barry laughed a little at that. Out of all their friends, Magnus was definitely the one he knew would be the best to have here. He’d helped Barry through everything from the start of his transition and was even the one to take care of him after his surgery. His naturally comforting presence in Barry’s life was what he needed now as he both dreaded and looked forward to covering his scars.

 

It took Lup a few minutes to properly scale and scan the tattoo design onto the special transfer paper before she called Barry over to make sure it looked okay and would fit how he wanted. Barry took his shirt off for her again, watching as she held the paper against his torso, adjusting it a little, “That look okay, my man?”

 

Barry nodded with a small smile as he looked down at the copy of the tattoo on his chest. Even with it only being held up against his chest, it already looked like it belonged there and would cover his scars well. He couldn’t help the excitement that came with the thought of having something to symbolize his transition so beautifully. Lup smiled at him and headed over to the area, patting the bench for Barry and sitting to gather what she would need for his tattoo. As Barry followed her and hopped onto the bench, Magnus was called back for his septum piercing by a small woman with sky blue hair and a wide, toothy smile. Magnus gave Barry a thumbs-up as he headed back with the woman, “Be right back!”

 

“Good luck, Mags!” Barry called back laid down when Lup motioned for him to do so. He looked down and watched as she cleaned off and shaved the parts of his torso that the tattoo would cover.

 

“You two seem close.” Lup said without looking up from her careful work, wiping Barry’s chest off of hair.

 

“Yeah, he’s my best friend.” Barry tried not to move as she put the gel and transfer paper on his stomach, peeling it off to reveal the outline of the design on his torso.

 

Lup hummed a little as she stood and inspected the full outline, “That’s cool. He’s a great guy. I did my first real tattoo on anyone on him, the Nessie one on his side.” She smiled fondly as she got the needle and machine ready, “We can wait for him to get done before we start, if you want. The first little bit is rough.”

 

Barry nodded and looked at her tattoos. Bright red and orange flames started at her wrists and made their way up her arms to her shoulders. Across her upper chest was a large branch of red and purple flowers, and when she turned to get some ink from a drawer behind her, Barry could see on her back was a large phoenix spreading across her shoulder blades. On the back of her neck was the transgender symbol, the combination of the Mars and Venus symbols, in the colors of the trans pride flag. He smiled when he saw it, “You’re trans, too?”

 

Lup turned, a confused and slightly offended look on her face, “ _What_ did you just say?”

 

“Oh! I-I, uh,” Barry stammered, anxious and a little scared, “I didn’t, I mean—you have the—”

 

Lup started laughing and put her hand on Barry’s arm, “No, you’re okay! Sorry. I’m trans, yeah.” She kept smiling at him as he covered his face with his hands and focused on his breathing, “Sorry, I was just goofin’.”

 

Barry took a deep breath and dragged his hands down his face. He glared at her, but it soon faded into a soft smile upon seeing her smile, “It’s fine. I just…those things have happened before.”

 

“You’ve seen cis people with trans pride tattoos?” She raised an eyebrow at him.

 

“Well, I’ve seen cis people with trans equality and pride shirts to show support. I was hoping you having an actual tattoo didn’t just make you a really extreme ally.”

 

“Nah, I’m trans and proud as hell.” Lup shrugged and put a foot up on her stool, “That was my first tattoo, I got it the second my legal name change went through.”

 

Barry nodded and went to compliment it, when he was startled by a hand on his opposite arm and a shout of, “Magnus!” Barry jumped, looking over at his friend who had returned with a wad of bloody paper towel held up to his nose and a large smile, “Told ya I’d be back.”

 

“Yeah, ya sure did.” Barry took a deep breath and smiled at him, “Can I see?”

 

Magnus removed the paper towel to reveal a septum piercing in the shape of a horseshoe, “Looks cool, huh? Once it heals more I’m gonna get a hoop for it.”

 

Lup inspected the piercing with a smile, “Fucking sick, my man!” She and Magnus fist-bumped before she sat down and looked at Barry, “You ready there, dude?”

 

Barry took a deep breath and held Magnus’s hand once he had pulled up a chair to sit next to his bench, “Yeah, think so.”

 

“You’ll be fine, just remember to breathe and relax.” Lup smiled reassuringly as she turned on the machine and started tracing the outline of Barry’s tattoo.

 

~*~

After a couple hours of outlining and shading Barry’s tattoo with a break to breathe for a few minutes halfway through, Lup sat back and wiped off the last part of his torso that she’d worked on with a smile, “Alright, I think you’re all good.”

 

Barry let go of Magnus’s hand, which he had been clutching for dear life, and smiled weakly at her, “You sure? You said that before you spent ten more minutes on shading.”

 

Lup rolled her eyes fondly and patted his arm, “Shut up or I’ll start doing the coloring now.” She put down the needle and stretched out her back, nodding to a mirror on the wall nearby, “Go check it out.”

 

With a little help from Magnus and Lup, Barry managed to sit up and hop off the bench. He closed his eyes in front of the mirror, hesitating before opening them to see his new tattoo. When he did, he smiled wider than he had since he first saw his flat chest in the mirror two years ago. The thick scars were now covered with the spread wings of a blue jay, his favorite bird. It looked perfect, even though it was still only the black outline and shading so far, and he started tearing up looking at it.

 

“I take it you’re happy with it?” Lup’s voice startled Barry out of staring at his chest, and he wiped at his eyes just in case as he headed back to her.

 

Magnus beamed at Barry, arms folded over his chest, “It looks great, why wouldn’t he be?”

 

“I love it. Thank you so much.” He looked down and gently touched one of his scars, now marked with a symbol of what he’d worked years for: a chest he felt proud of.

 

Lup slapped his hand away from his chest and got out gauze covered on one side with black plastic, covering his chest with it and taping it down, “Now, I know Mags will help you, but you’re gonna want to gently wash it once or twice a day for a couple weeks or until it’s healed, and keep it moisturized. Make sure you use unscented stuff on it and don’t itch or pick at it.” Once she had finished taping the gauze on, Lup looked up at Barry, “Got it?”

 

Barry nodded and gently put his shirt back on, “Got it.”

 

“Good.” Lup smiled and stood, making her way over to the desk, “So, I’m thinking we give it a month or so to make sure that’s all healed before we do the coloring.”

 

“Works for me.” Barry followed her, checking the calendar on his phone as they scheduled his next appointment. He glanced over to see Magnus talking and laughing with Killian, who was cleaning up her area.

 

Lup wrote down his name in her appointment book, then handed him a little card with the time and date of his next appointment. He smiled as he put it in his wallet, taking out the money to pa her for the tattoo, including a generous tip. She smiled at him and winked as she took the money, “Thanks, dude. Take care of that thing and I’ll see you back here in a month, ‘kay?”

 

Barry nodded, “Yeah, see you then.” He waved as he headed out, Magnus following closely behind.

 

As the two got in the car, Barry couldn’t help but hide his face in his hands, trying not to show the pure joy on his face. Magnus elbowed him lightly and Barry could almost sense the sly smirk on his face, “So, don’t mind tattoos so much now, huh?”

 

“No, they’re, uh. Pretty cool. I might have to get a few more.” Barry ran his hands down his face as he glanced out the window, where he could see Lup in the shop cleaning up her machine.

 

Magnus clapped Barry on the shoulder, “That’s the spirit!” He laughed as they drove off. Barry couldn’t help but gently touch the gauze on his chest and blush as he thought about Lup. He hoped this month would go by fast.

**Author's Note:**

> My research on tattoos over large scars finally paid off and I'm so excited I found a way of projecting my desire for a top surgery tattoo onto one of my good good trans boys. I'll probably continue putting off my other fic a little longer to write one more chapter of this, at least to finish this off a little nicer.
> 
> Comments and kudos are very much appreciated. Thanks y'all!


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